The Ship Model Forum

Hi!

Look what the cat dragged in!



I wasn't suppose to get this kit yet but apparently there was some left. I also recieved my Uss Momsen etches today aswell so now it's
gonna be even harded to try to finish that one haha

I also ordered both WEM PE sets and the 130mm guns aswell, hopefully they arrive next week.

As most of you know this kit is pretty flawed, but I'm not gonna let that bum me down as I do love these russian modern ships.
I've build this kit years ago and I think it was one of the first kits I did with any PE. Now years later it has always haunted me and now it
is the time to give it another go.

I started by sanding all the parting lines which the hull was riddled with. After that was taken care of I did some research on the port holes
and filled few of them up and drilled a couple of new ones to match the real thing.They seem to be a bit higher than in real life but I decided
I'm not gonna start dwelling on stuff too much or else I get frustrated.



I also drilled the holes for the Pontos pedestals and secured the nuts inside the hull with some styrene and epoxy.



As I had drilled all the port holes I wanted to add something behind them so I did these crude compartments to give some feel as there would be something behind them.
Later I'll finish the holes with Kristal Klear some other product to make windows. After they were painted I glued the deck down.



I started the detailing from the bow. All the locator wells were filled and sanded as the bollards and chalks were smaller and looked really bad when placed on them.
The chalks were also moved closer to the edges. There were no wells for the anchor chain so I made something according to my reference photos.





I think that's it for the first day!

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Hey Bob, I'll probably don't touch the hull shape too much as my skills really don't permit me of doing too big changes.
And theres always the chance to bite more than you can handle thus the model would end up in the shelf of doom and
I really want to finish this one as even with it's flaws it really does make a grand model in my opinion. However I'm planning to
modify and fix atleast something on the way but I still haven't really figured it out what and where.

On a side note this kit really does require a lot of work. Almost all the parts are full of ejector pin marks and parting lines and most of the
mating surfaces produce bad seams. This kit reminds me a lot of the 1/350 Uss North Carolina kit as it was pretty bad in over all fits etc.
but it was still enjoyable to build it and builds into a nice model if you just work for it.

I worked more on the bow. Most of the kit detail parts are on.
I also added the deck edges using strip styrene. They will also work as a guide when putting the railings on.





The parts sure are full of ejector pin marks. Or sink holes not sure what to call 'em.



Medium CA ZAP was poured in to the holes and after that accelerator was added and filed and sanded smooth.

I also worked on the details using spare PEs and using styrene bits and pieces.

Small update:

I worked a bit on the rudder. The kit has actually 2 rudders even though Sovremenny only has 1 so I filled the locator holes.
I modified the rudder a bit aswell to resemble a real one.





I also worked on the stern details. Sama approach as on the bow. Fill all the locator wells then replace the parts to more correct positions.
Strip styrene for deck edges.



Worked on the details on the stern deck housing aswell.

Small update again:

I did some shaping work on the bow. Just filed the bow to better match the real thing.
Nothing too major.





Also the decoy launchers (???) in the stern were totally in the wrong place so I removed the kits locator stubs and placed them on their right place.
Their chutes were missing so I scratchbuild them aswell.



So I did some samples of the colors I chose for the hull and the deck.

Here's the hull sample.



I followed my normal preshading techniques and added some postshading with templates stuff Laci did on his Nimitz.
It'll be toned down a bit more I think. I want the plating effect to be just barely visible when you take a closer look.

And here's the deck sample.



After closely watching some reference photos the deck is a lot more reddish brown than gray.
I also wanted it to have the plated look of the real thing aswell.

I'll probably get the basic hull works completed next week but I'm still waiting on some paint refills to arrive so atm I'm out of paint.

So if you have any ideas or thoughts concerning the paint job there's still time.

I most likely do a bit indepth-how-to of the painting procedures when I actually do the painting on the hull.

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Yes, Please do a step by step of how you are painting the Hull and deck. PLEASE !!!!!!!

Todd

Thanks Bob. I have to say I enjoyed immensely your take on the Kirov.
Sometimes I just can't figure out where the lot of you get the patience and the skill just turn the kits upside down
fixing all those little things.

Will do Todd. The progress photos probably won't be super good quality as I take the pictures on the go with my mobile phone.
I'll most likely take some better quality photos of the finished deck and hull afterwards though.

Here's some small progress though:

I worked a bit more on the stern details and they are almost finished.



I also finished the AK Gatlings. They were pretty nice though the fit and seams were piss ass poor. Nothing super glue would not fix though!
I made new barrels from brass rod and added hand rails over them. They'd need to be more angled and most likely with every other stanchion
removed. Have to see if I modify them a bit more.

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There clearly is a railing, or something on the bottom mount. It's more crude on my version though
It goes at the same angle as the mount.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/67307569@N00/398988992/

I posted the scratchbuilt chutes couple of posts ago, they'll be added after the deck is painted.

I'm building her as Bezuprechny - Безупречный number 430 in the late 80's.
This is my main source of reference pictures:

http://navsource.narod.ru/photos/03/476/index.html

Although I do look at other pictures aswell for detail shots and so on.

Like most of my builds I'm not that bent on getting everything right but I do like to do what I can.

The monster's been primed!







Once again I used vallejos gray primer straight from the bottle with my Badger 360 airbrush. I use this airbrush for all the large stuff and metal colors.
I've read some mixed reviews of this product. I just love it but it does have some kinks to it at times.
At first the layer doesn't really look too good. Also it tends to dry pretty fast on the tip of the airbrush like some acrylics.
I've found that shaking it really well does a long way. Also keeping something to clean the needle tip is handy.

So started by giving the model 2-4 light coats. Some parts where there were seams or the locator wells I applied the coats a bit stronger.
After that I let the whole thing dry for about 4 hours, then went back and dry sanded the hull and the deck with a 1000 grit sand paper.
I didn't apply too much pressure while sanding. After this one final coat was applied and let it dry. Once again the ship was thoroughly sanded
this time with 1500 grit sand paper. After this the surface was really nice. There were some small marks on the locator wells but the painting and weathering
to come would most likely hide those so I didn't see fit to fix them.

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Amazing work!!!

_________________
Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance

Hey Bob.

I think that photo was from udaloy class.

Here's a shot of the 430 which also clearly shows the water pipe.

http://navsource.narod.ru/photos/03/476/03476013.jpg

And a shot of a modern sovremenny.

http://s338.photobucket.com/user/Kotte4 ... sort=4&o=3

I might have to work on it a bit, maybe if I cut the upper rail from from one end before the stanchion
and cut a bit out of it then angle it with the mount and reglue it back.
Have to see if it's worth the hassle.

Today is paint day!

I mixed one bottle of paint (15ml) of my batch of blue gray.
The base mix started with 60% H337 grayish blue FS35237 and 20 % of H307 gray FS36320 and 20% H56 intermediate blue.
Couple of drops of white H316 was added to the mix. I thinned it down close to 1:1 ratio with Mr.Color thinner.

I tested it out on the deck housings which were primed first then a preshade of navy blue H54 added to the edges and details.





After this the main mix was sprayed on letting some of the blue show through.





After this some more white was added to the mix and centers of the panels etc. were highlighted.









Be sure to add more thinner to this mix, I forgot and the first pass resulted to be really grainy. I went back to try to corrent my mistakes with a better mix.
It's better to thin it down to watery consistency as the you are suppose to just open the nozzle just a little with low air pressure so the transition of the colors
are really faded. I'm not super happy with the results as the fixing pass killed a bit of the effect but weathering will most likely make it better.

I've started the painting of the deck and finish it by the evening and will post the whole thing then.

More on the deck housing.

I hand painted the red line with vallejo red.

Next step was weathering. I started by applying dots of different shades of oil colours.
This was then blended in with a brush. Be sure not to moisten the brush too much with thinner.



After that a black pin wash done. I used a enamel product from Ammo of Mig. A wash for nato camouflage.
I used a fine 00 pencil to add the wash straight into the details without marring the surroundings too much.



After 15 minutes exces was cleaned out. Once again don't moisten the brush too much with thinner.



After this a slight dry brushing of white was done to the hand rails and plumbing details.
I use enamels or oil colors as they blend in better than acrylics.
After this 1 light coat of vallejos satin varnish was airbrushed.

Finished for now.

Ok the decks mostly finished. Still some detail painting to go on with the details and maybe a brown wash to tie the details
together and then some pigments to finish it.

First H2 black was airbrushed to make the "tiling".





After that I mixed red brown H47 with a bit of black H2 to a dark red brownish color.
That mix was sprayed inside the tiles. After this everything was misted so only some of the black was visible.
This sure does take some time



When this was done I took some idea Laci had while painting the Nimitz.
I took some tamiya masking tape and laid it on the tiles edges to create a sharp definition of the colors.
I used H47 red brown straight from the jar this time. I hope you bear with me.

First I did the vertical lines. This was done to every single one of the tile lines. I just didn't spray the paint over the line, instead
I only sprayed small batch on the tile coming from over the tape in one small motion. This was done to every tile
on that row. Then the tape was moved to the right to form a new line.



After this the same procedure was done in horizontal. This time I didn't do it to every single tile. Instead I kept it random
putting the tape here and there and spraying only small lines.



And here's after the whole thing finished.



After this more weathering was done.

I used some oil paints for this. I used some black, burnt umber and sienna and buff.



These colors were dotted on the deck. I wanted a more grimier look so brown and black was used way more than the other colors.





This was all blended with brush. I used just a bit of thinner but not too much.



After that same thing was done again with only black and brown to further darken the deck.

After that one brown wash was added. The last thing was some buff streaks added here and there.

Everything was sealed with 2 light coats of vallejos satin varnish.

Here's the finished look in hopefully in a bit better photos.

That is pretty awesome, dude!

_________________
Sean Nash, ACG (aircraft camo gestapo)

On the ways:
1/200 Trumpeter HMS Nelson
1/700 Tamiya USS Yorktown CV-5

In the stash:
1/35 Italiari PT-109
1/35 Tamiya "Pibber" Patrol Boat
1/350 Trumpeter USS Yorktown CV-10

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